“I warned you the day I killed Nicollo to not mistake me for the hero.”
My heart beat wildly as I watched his every move. He stopped at the end of the table, picking up a silver knife. “I told you I was the villain, the monster.” He brushed the pad of this thumb across the blade of the knife then looked at me from across the table. “Did you think I was lying?”
With my hands on my lap, I nervously tangled my fingers together. “I don’t remember what I was thinking.”
“What do you remember?”
“I remember feeling relieved. Thankful that you saved me from an even worse fate.”
“Worse than what?”
I swallowed hard, not knowing if I had the right answer to that.
“Worse than what, little mouse?”
I scraped together the courage and looked up at him. “Worse than being your prisoner. Worse than being chained, naked, and beaten in front of a room full of men whose eyes showed the depths of their hatred for me.”
Slowly he started toward me. “Oh yes. That was the day you begged me not to leave you. The day you said you felt safer with me than with the rest of the men there.”
He stopped behind me, and I sucked in a breath when chills danced across my skin, my entire body hyper aware of the man towering over me. No matter how much I feared him, how much dread he evoked inside me, the lust and the desire he stirred within me was always stronger—more compelling.
I felt the cold sting of stainless steel against the skin of my neck, and I closed my eyes listening to the rampant beating of my heart.
“I warned you that day too, didn’t I, little mouse?”
“Warned me about what?”
Slowly he dragged the edge of the knife across my throat. I swallowed, and the movement made the blade press harder against my skin.
“I warned you not to feel safe with me.”
“And look what happened after that.” I kept my eyes shut as I felt him pull the blade across the pulsing vein at the side of my neck. One wrong move, just one flick of his wrist, and he could end me. It would only take the time of a single breath for him to kill me, to let my blood seep out of my body. But instead of feeling terrified by the thought, I felt exhilarated. My body didn’t react with any kind of fight or flight instinct, only a desire that both thrilled and alarmed me.Why am I not scared? Is it because I trust him?
The sharp point of the knife pressed deeper into my skin. “And what exactly happened after that?” His voice sounded deep, low…dangerous.
“Everything changed.”
“Maybe you’re being foolish to believe that.”
I knew I was playing Russian roulette with the devil, but my shadowed soul loved the game.
I cleared my throat softly. “You killed a man. You pressed a gun against your cousin’s skull and pulled the trigger, painting my prison walls with his blood in order to keep me from being raped. Tell me, Castello, was there even a second that you regretted doing that? That you regretted pulling that trigger?”
The only answer he gave me was his silence.
I took a deep breath. “And your mother? The woman who gave birth to you. You killed her. You took her life to save mine. Twice, Castello. Twice you pulled the trigger for me, killing your own flesh and blood, so how can you expect me to believe that nothing has changed?”
As the last word left my mouth, I felt the blade pierce my skin. Pain seared my flesh, and I gasped when he wrapped his hand around my throat.
He leaned down, his lips inches from my ear. “Just because I killed for you doesn’t mean you’re safe with me.”
I turned my face toward him. “To me it means I’m safer nowhere else.”
Our gazes remained locked. His eyes were cold, his expression hard, but I tried my best not to feel intimidated by him in that moment. “I know what you’re trying to do, Castello, and it’s not going to work.”
His grip around my throat tightened. “And what is it that I’m doing?”
I brought my hand up to the spot where his knife had nicked my skin and wiped the blood with my finger. “You’re trying to make me fear the beast inside you more than I lust for it.” I placed my hand against his cheek and smeared the drop of my blood over his lips. “But as you’ve said before…it’s my blood that feeds the beast inside you.”